Beasts of the Beauties
by Corvus no Genmu
Summary: OneShot Series. They say that beauty is what kills a beast. Slays it dead where it stands in adoration of she who it can never truly possess or love. But what if beauty stayed her hand? What if the abyssal beast was not slain... but tamed? Are you willing to speak for it and yourself... Alice?
1. Abyssal Depths

**DISCLAIMER:** All copyrighted materials belong to their respected owners.

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><p><strong><span>Beasts of the Beauties<span>**

By Corvus no Genmu

"_Abyssal Depths_"

He wasn't hunting her.

Not in the strictest sense of the word for if he was she'd surely have been swallowed down and forgotten like prior meals. He had no intention of eating her, which made this sudden urge to stalk her from a distance all the more confounding for him. He held little love for those who shared the blood of the Slayers in their veins even diluted as it as amongst her kindred. Such small affection did he have for her kindred that he made it a point to never attack a settlement lest they strike at him first. If they did…

Well, there was no need to worry for a second attempt made at ending his life.

Or want of food for that matter…

Still, the question remained to be asked, what in the name of the Elders was he doing? He was following what was at best a small snack for reasons he, as of yet, could not fully explain. A small snack that could very easily become an incredibly large nuisance depending on the size of her kindreds' settlement and how important she was to them. So why bother with this needless trailing? It wasn't her spark, for hers was no different than any other of her kindred. It couldn't have been her appearance either despite the vivid brightness of her hair, color the likes of which he hadn't seen since he staked a claim in this part of the deeper depths. It was a shade that attracted a gaze but did not warrant its continuation no matter how difficult it was for his eyes to turn away.

Then he heard it again.

Her Voice.

Yes, such a marvelous sound it was that to label it so simply as a voice would be a gross injustice to the wondrous melody her every word invoked. She was speaking more to herself than any of the deep dwellers who she wrongfully thought would offer some salvation to her and reveal to her a secreted pathway back into brighter waters. He could not make out her words but he could feel the despair in them, which became all the more evident with the sound of her weeping.

He eased forward from behind her chosen refuge for the night. He smelled her taste on the cold currents and lapped at his jaws unwittingly. It had been a while since he last dined… but no. Curiosity was not a common vice in his kindred but even a monster such as he could wonder at what kind of happenstance brought a bright-water dweller down to the deeper depths. He came up just behind her refuge, great eyes narrowed and massive jaw set in a deep scowl as crocodilian claws raised up slowly to grasp—

A flash of light!

He reared back, surprised at the sudden intensity even from so far away. No mere light but a _power_ to make even an Elder pause in concern. Such a thing could not, _should not_, be here in these abysmal waters. Crimson light ignited in his eyes whilst lightning danced along his massive form as his curiosity was washed away beneath a tide of fury. Such an encroachment, such a call for challenge, would not go unanswered and as he reared back to answer in kind, his anger was brought to a jarring halt not just by her Voice but her words as well.

_The Trident…?_

A slow blink as rusted gears started turning towards an even more startling realization.

_Daddy?!_

By the time he had collected his wits, she had already gone back the way she had come. He followed from just above the luminous forest with his spines scraping lightly against the rocky ceiling above. He hid his own natural ambience of his dorsal spikes but could do nothing for the reddish glow of his eyes though their shine was nowhere near as bright as they had been but moment's ago. He watched as parent and child were reunited and listened to the question he himself would have asked of her. What brought her to these depths, so far away from home?

She did not speak, much to his pity, but she did answer all the same by extending her arm forward to reveal—

_A trinket?_

Her father bellowed with fury and their hidden observer's hood tightened in disdain. Little love for the Slayers aside, such objects did not warrant that manner of reaction. Shiny yes but it was hardly deadly. She spoke in her defense, her Voice ringing pleasantly in his ears and he realized just what kind of monster her parent was, to make a youngling find the darkness of the deeper depths a safer refuge than her own home.

Then he spotted a deeper dweller, a leftover from his last hunt. So this was where it had run off to…

Reptilian orbs narrowed at the leftover's words, so assured that there was no means to leave the deeper depths yet it was not fear from predation that voiced the statement. What was it then if not false bravado, a fool's cowardice? The father ignored the leftover for what it was and took his child to him as she grasped her pet tightly to her own chest. The Trident flared with _power_ and it took every bit of self-control to not react to such an open display of hostility in the heart of his territory.

That was when he spotted it.

The raging whirlpool that appeared from the opening of massive, fanged jaws and any self-control he possessed was immediately forgotten with three simple words.

Intruder!

_Fight!_

**_KILL!_**

He shot downwards in a twisting charge embraced by the serpentine coils of lightning that sparked and roasted the leftover to a crisp as it sought refuge from a confrontation of titans. A ball of electricity shot forth from his jaws and impacted into the center of the swirling vortex. A pained scream and the whirlpool ceased its motions as its source unburied itself from the ocean floor. Massive needle-like teeth bared themselves up at an enraged reptilian as amphibian limbs pushed the heaving body up from the crusted oceanic floor. The leviathans began to circle each other, one with amber eyes aglow and rubbery body inflating to maximum size while the other's red eyes burned in the abysmal waters as lightning danced across his sinuous form. Even inflated the intruder was still much smaller, just barely half his own gargantuan size, but made up for it by possessing a mouth that equaled three-fourths of its own body with an obscene number of teeth. Were he younger, when his scales still shone azure, he'd have been worried for those teeth. The paralytic spines popping up along its back even more so.

Now?

Now he was amused.

And hungry…

A blast of lightning down its gullet was all that it took to finish it. Despite the rubbery texture to its flesh, lightning did as much harm to it as any other who was not born from its good graces. The corpse had barely finished its death throws before he was upon it, jaws ripping free the malleable flesh and swallowing it down. The barbs at the back shattered and were grounded by his fangs, the venom adding a delightful zing to his palette but they do little to deter him in his meal.

The quiet of the deeper depths made him pause. The absence of vivid red made him turn to the opening that led to brighter waters. Something small and sparkling in the ambient light of his spines slowly sank before his eyes. The golden trinket was now open and free from its embrace upon a pale Slayer kin's wrist.

Crimson eyes looked once more to the opening in the perpetual darkness of the abysmal depths.

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><p>In those first several days, he was blinded.<p>

Hard not to be when one's eyes have grown so accustomed to the blackness that the natural light of the sun burns like fire upon unprepared orbs. His agonized howls scared the prey away, which did little to improve upon his soured mood. Not that there was much sustenance to be found in what barely equated as a bite-sized snack. When his sight was restored enough that he can see the world he had left behind he found himself impressed with his tracking abilities.

Blind enough to collide into more than a few small grouping of stone islands and crops of corral, too many new and old scents to taste let alone distinguish from _delish_ to _squeamish_, and yet when the world finally begins to clear and make some bit of sense again, the first thing he finds waiting for him is her.

Well… not waiting for him per say but he found her easily enough with her quiet humming as she perused through the wreckage of a Slayer's ship. A carrier and one that had met an unfortunate end by one such as he by blood or by nature it did not matter. There was no mistaking the claw marks or the bumps of buried bones beneath the sandy floor.

Another curiosity to this little thing…

What was it that she sought here in this place of destruction and death? She carried with her only a solitary satchel so no weapons of sharpened edge made from the robbed corpses of his kinfolk both below and above the sea. Yet there was a method to her madness, for none of her people traveled these waters. The only scents that were carried on the currents besides her and her pet were those of the scavenging carnivores and the blood-driven hunters. She was looking for something in the wreckage, a pattern to her motions born from prior experience in seeking treasures from above the waters. Yet still the question remained.

What was she looking for?

Whatever it was, it must have been something profound if her ecstatic exclamation was anything to go by. Clutching her freshly filled sack tightly to her chest, she exited the wreck and made for the local landmass. So caught up in her excitement, she never once saw the leviathan floating nearby, watching her with crimson eyes aglow with their own inner light.

But her little companion did.

A fish, small enough that it couldn't even serve as a monetary snack. It remained quivering in the clawed opening of the ship, little eyes large and unblinking while its mouth flapped uselessly. He gave the fish and cursory glance, wondering whether it was a pet or a means of distracting potential predators, before he turned away and slowly followed after his latest curiosity.

He wondered at her going towards land, thinking perhaps that some outcast of her kin had settled closer to the shores than the rest of her people. Not once did he consider that she would willingly enter the territory of the Slayers for surely anyone who knew of their ways would willingly go to them.

So entrenched was he in these thoughts he never saw how the little guppy had suddenly become alive again and was making a frantic swim the opposite way towards an ignorant father.

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><p>She was insane.<p>

A Voice to make the Elders weep and fall from the Heavens and she was mad as sensibility could allow. Crazy enough to draw near to Slayer territory but cautious enough to keep well out of sight of their vessels and their sights, and who is it that she seeks to explain the treasures she uncovered? To define the mysterious and reveal the truth buried beneath the lies? To whom does she turn for guidance?

A bird.

An Elder-forsaken _bird!_

The sun's light was briefly shadowed but he paid it no mind so entrenched was he in his mounting disgust. The bird was not even a kin but a plain, feathered vermin _gull_ of a bird! One that has cracked its head too often if the gull's deranged caws and screeches were anything to go by…

By no means an expert in the affairs of the Slayers even he could tell that was not the way the tool was supposed to be used. He'd have roasted the feathers right off the agonizingly _loud_ vermin were its mad vocals not the source of a pleasure greater than the pain it wrought.

She was laughing.

And it was as beautiful as any song she could ever sing.

Yet even such a wondrous sound such as this could not stave his impatience for long. His curiosity had broken free of its tether and it demanded answers to its questions regardless of consequence. In a swirl of obsidian, he had encircled and trapped her and the vermin both though neither was aware until he surfaced. The vermin took off and he goaded its haste with a small sparkling of lightning's wrath but never did his gaze deter from his curiosity. She had been startled by his sudden appearance, had swam back and into the hardy scales of his webbed tail but her eyes soon turned to her treasures and back up to him.

He cocked his head before sharply turning to face from whence they had traveled.

Crimson eyes narrowed, nostrils flaring to taste the scent of _power_ flowing through the waters of the ocean and—**_PAIN!_**

He bellowed loudly, lightning dancing along the back of his neck and striking hard and fast against that who would dare to strike him from behind. An agonized roar was his answer and though disorientated from the sudden strike, he had enough sense to curl his massive form about his curious new treasure. His webbed tail came up and hid the startling red of her hair and his hood spread wide to shadow her in darkness as he glared across the ocean waters.

A wyvern flew low against the lapping tide, countless scales falling free from lightning's sharpened bite against silver hide. It was circling, smoke trailing through blackened fangs as a burning light began to illuminate deep within a serpentine throat. Long though it had been since last he fought with one of the Winged kin, he still remembered the animosity that drove those who graced the skies to try and attack those of the abysmal depths.

Try… and fail.

Fire expelled forth and collided against his back as he curled tightly and took once more to the waters below, taking his curiosity down with him in the process in a confused tangle of clawed limbs and tailed-flippers. He grasped her lightly in his paws, crimson eyes staring down at her before casting her off and away. She spun but righted herself quickly, turning wide eyes back to him but he was already rising upwards to the surface, lightning dancing in his jaws.

A winged shadow passed overhead just as he leapt free from the ocean's embrace, electrified fangs digging deeply into spiked tail. The wyvern screamed as lightning coursed through its body, its blood heating to a rapid boil beneath its hardy scales before gravity resumed its control once more and dragged both titans down into the sea.

A flash of red caught his eye.

_Too close…_

Fangs dug deeper into silver-scaled flesh.

_Too close to her…!_

He charged through the waters, dragging his quarry by the tail even as it fought for the open sky once more. What a sight it must be to those on the surface, a wyvern being dragged by the tail like a living kite…

He saw the rise of the nearing shore and decided that he had reached an appropriate distance when the thunder of Slayers' devices echoed above and the angered roars of his enemy turned into screams of terror and agony. His jaws relaxed their hold and he slinked away into the familiar darkness of deeper waters, never once looking back as the blue water behind him was dirtied with silver scales and blood.

But two pairs of eyes did remain watching, not merely as individuals but as those of another, each skull baring a golden orb that shined beside its brother. Far and away from the scene, deep in the bones of her lair, a witch lay back upon her throne.

Smiling…

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><p>He was resting atop an expanse of seaweed, nursing his only injury. Though only slightly broken it would be many days until what was left of his shattered pride would reassemble back into its proper form. How could he have allowed himself to be so foolish, so inexperienced? Had it truly been so long since last he was in the upper world? He had let his infatuated curiosity with the Slayer-kin make unto him a target in the eyes of a Winged kin who he would have, <em>should have<em> killed entirely upon his merit rather than making use of those accursed Slayers!

What was that feeling —that emotion— he had felt when he had realized she had been so near to fiery death from above?

Was… Was it _fear? _Had he been _afraid?_ For one that was a kin of the _Slayers?_

It had been so long… He had almost forgotten what fear felt like.

Lightning danced within his spines, lighting up the darkness of midnight waters with an azure glow that was pale in comparison to the bloodied reds of his eyes.

Clearly he did _not_ like the reminder.

He curled tightly about himself until he looked more like a massive hunk of obsidian burdened with luminescent coral. He closed his eyes tightly and impatiently awaited the approach of slumber but here, in the brighter waters, there was far more _silence_ than that of the abyss.

In the abyss there was no day or night so there was little chance that something in the blackness was not awake hunting or being hunted. He missed those sounds, the sharpened squeals of the fed upon lost amidst the rapturous cries of their devourers. It was hardly surprising then, when there came a sound of whimpering, the leviathan did not stir himself awake but instead fell deeper into slumber moments away from true sleep when—

_Darkness…_

He stiffened but did not move to the attack. Blackness not of the abyss but something far more ancient and far hungrier… It was a Power but not at the same time that he tasted upon the currents. Nothing at all like the Trident but there was something… _wrong_ with it. It was primordial, like that of an Elder's might, but there was… It was _tamed!_ How could this be? Darkness, so pure as this, so starved that it made him tremble… How could it possibly be at the beck and call of another?

Lightning, burning bright and coldly merciless, arced between his dorsal scutes as he uncurled and roared into the encroaching swarm of Ancient Dark only to find himself alone and without anything, prey or enemy, in sight. The electric arcs died down to the occasional spark but his eyes remained opened and vigilant. He _knew_ the Ancient Dark had been here, in the depths of the oceans and well outside its usual hunting grounds in the night sky far above. Yet now the waters were currents were clear of the shadows but for—_One!_

His head snapped around, jaws opened wide but it was too late. Magic as old as the oceans themselves reached out and grasped tightly upon him. He roared once more as _agony_ sheered its way throughout his body, lightning launching upwards from the depths of the sea to scratch at the underbelly of the sky. He soon fell silent though he took great heaving gasps of ocean's breath.

His eyes opened with an angry hiss, revealing their changed hue of viscous violet.

"I did it… I did it!" An exulted voice from the shadows, loud and grating upon his ears and yet he did not stir, did not anger, or strike out against the irritation.

He couldn't much as he wanted to.

She moved like the octopi and possessed far more meat than any creature twice her girth would possess. Shocking white hair stood out against Slayer's flesh of the same disgusting hue of the leviathan's changed eyes. Even caged as he was, he could still taste the vileness upon her, the enchantments and spells that oozed across her skin like unseen mucus.

A Practitioner as his kin would call her or as the Slayers and their multitudes of variant kin would name her…

A witch.

She floated before his face, gloating over the ancient spell's success in taming him, in ensnaring him. The ingredients of which made him roar and strike out at the confines of his inner cage. That she would dare to use the sacred remains of an Elder made him disgusted, as it would to any of his monstrous kin, but that she would dare to use the once beating heart of one of _his kindred! One of his blood!_

For a moment, his eyes regained their crimson hue and a spark of lightning's might lanced out to the witch and was quickly repelled by the remains she clutched tightly in her tentacles. A horn, so simple and yet so elegant to behold, which once sat upon the equine skull of an Elder of the Lightning…

_Disgusting wretch…!_

She chided his attempt and the cage tightened even further. He felt himself falling, sinking into the sweet oblivion of sleep though his body remained awake and vigilant to its master's first command.

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><p>Oblivion.<p>

Such is the realm of a forced sleep.

There is no dreaming here to abide the passing of time nor is there nightmares in which to frighten one's self awake.

All there was with him were his thoughts.

And so long has it been since last he truly took the time to think… did he realize only now in the deepest recesses of his caged mind that he had forgotten himself.

He was not an Elder. He would _never _be an Elder.

Such was not for him.

Grace could not be destined for a common-blooded monster.

_But that does not make me a mere monster._

**Does it not?**

For a moment, he could have sworn he saw her.

The Treasure, his precious Voice… He could have Spoken. He should have Spoken.

_Why hadn't I?_

**You have forgotten.**

He had Spoken once. He was sure of it as he was the sky's coloration matching that of his precious oceanic home. He and all of his kin, from the Winged to the Hulking, the weakly Meek to the Almighty Elder, they could all Speak.

Yet the intruder who dared to devour his treasured Voice had not Spoken.

Yet the attacker did not utter a word.

_How have we all forgotten?_

**Such is not for the now but for the later, other concerns are far more pressing.**

Again, he caught sight of the glorious Voice but this time he heard her.

She was Speaking.

_Speaking to me._

**Then shouldn't you answer?**

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><p>Violet light flickered before being overwhelmed by a crimson tide. Fanged jaws that had been opened wide to devour slowly closed with a foreign meekness. She floated before him with arms spread out wide, putting herself between him and her kindred as the last of her words echoed away into the waters of the sea. The city lay undamaged but its outermost spires of stone and coral that lay broken and shattered by a single blow of a leviathan's tail.<p>

Her eyes gazed up into his own and saw something in them that made her smile in relief despite her father's loud demands that she move away. The leviathan took a deep, slow breath and released it in a slower sigh. The glow of his eyes muted with his shame as he beheld the slight tremble that had not left its roost from his savior's bare and pale shoulders.

"What are you doing?! Don't just stand there you great lummox!" The sea-witch yelled from where she had remained since he first set to her command of rampage, another outermost spire of the kingdom where she could overlook the destruction her new slave was to unleash. At least, she would have if that little mermaid had gotten in her way _again_. Electrical energy unwound from the horn of an Elder in her hand and whipped through the open sea to lash against her slave's back.

"Attack!"

The leviathan stiffened. His eyes narrowed and he turned slowly to face the sea-witch with thin merciless eyes.

And for the first time in an age, he _Spoke_.

"You…" The dorsal scutes, dark and dormant since the spell was cast and his mind shackled to a witch's whims, lit up with near blinding intensity. "**_MONSTER!_**"

An orb of lightning twice as large as the witch herself shot forth from the leviathan's roaring jaws but too late—the witch was gone in a swirl of squid ink. He roared his fury once more and dashed forward, jaws clamping down futilely upon the liquid darkness. Crimson eyes scanned the waters, tongue tasting for the vile spark of a practitioner. Crocodilian claws caught upon the tower and nearly crushed it between them. His eyes were aglow with rage as he roared once more but this time with _words_.

"You cannot flee me forever! No matter how far you go, no matter where you may hide, I will find you and when I do, **_I'll kill you!_**" The leviathan's voice echoed throughout the waters. He clutched the broken spire tightly in his claws, head bowing down low as he fought back the Primal Rage that burned through his veins like the life's blood of the Earth itself. He had only just regained the gift of Speech, he did not dare succumb to the same rage that took it from him.

Not when _She_ was there.

He looked back over his shoulder and saw the father before his daughter, before all of his kin, with the Trident gripped tightly in his hands but its Power a dull spark. Muted in its wielder's hands before one whom was innocent of sin if only for the moment. The leviathan took a few more steadying breaths, struggling to let the _Words_ come to him freely, without the Rage barring the way.

"Peace Trident Bearer. I have no quarrel with your kindred." Sparks lit dangerously across the scutes upon his back in a subtle continuation. _Yet…_ Crimson eyes fell to the Voice once more and the King of Atlantica's own eyes widened at the clear _adoration_ in those hellish orbs. "Gratitude everlasting to you, Treasured Voice…"

The little mermaid blushed with embarrassment as she hastily corrected him, "My name is Ariel."

"Ariel…" The leviathan found the name fitting upon his tongue and nodded. "Gratitude everlasting to you, Ariel of Treasured Voice."

It amazed him, the hues of the softer fleshed and though her father, and much of the vast populace, was still stuck deep in a stunned stupor, she was not so inclined. "Do you have a name?"

Did he? It has been so long since last it was uttered…

"Yes." The leviathan nodded his great head. "I am named Lagiacrus of Abyssal Depths."

She tested his name once, softly in a hushed whisper that the rest of her kindred missed but not he. No, he heard his name Spoken by her Voice and whatever Rage there was in his blood was gone. Vanquished by the soothing, dulcet tones of her most Treasured Voice.

He approached slowly, letting the water carry his great bulk forward.

"I owe you a boon, Ariel of Treasured Voice."

"A boon?" She asked in kind, surprised at his words, "but didn't you already save me?"

"A life saved is not equal to what you and your Voice have granted me once more. Because of you, I Speak as I have once before. Because of your selfless actions I think and therefore, I am My Self once more. That is something that I must repay no matter the cost."

"But…" Her eyes turned away from his. "But there's nothing that I want…"

She was lying.

He knew it, could taste it, see it plain as the redness of her hair. Her eyes refused to meet his and he knew he had her. He merely had to find the answer to the riddle that was her heart's desire.

"Truly? There is nothing that you desire? No trinket that you covet above all else? No task to accomplish? Have you no friends, no family, that you would wish of me to protect? Is there nothing valuable and no precious people that would be so to me? Is my fury abhorred?"

He looked once more to her kin, those whom cowered in shadows and they whom stood fearfully but courageously in his sight, and they whom swore allegiance to them, those that were less than meager morsels and were hardly worth the effort in acknowledging let alone eating.

"Have you no rivals to conquer, no foes to vanquish, no one to call your enemy and so my own? Nothing that you crave destroyed and wiped clean from the ocean floor? Is my power unwarranted?"

His eyes fell again to her father and they narrowed dangerously not for the old king's tight grip upon the Trident, but the recalled hurt and heartbreak uttered by his Treasured Voice, of her fear of one whom was to be her father and instead her heart's breaker.

"Perhaps… Yes, perhaps it is not promise of Power that you desire," He spoke more to himself than to her as he circled her. "I am older than you presume me to be, Ariel of Treasured Voice. I was but a hatchling when your kindred left the land and withdrew into the sea's embrace from your fellows. Yes, there is much of your history I could tell you of your kin and those whom once were yours… The humans as your kindred call them."

He saw it then.

The Spark within her eyes…

He had her.

"Stay away from my daughter!" roared King Triton. "She will have nothing more to do with you! Go back to the Abyss from whence you came!"

Power emanated in thick waves and he whirled with an angry hiss upon her father. The Trident was aglow with the aged merman's wrath but it still refused to loose its power upon one who had done no wrong to its Bearer or his kin.

It had no need to.

Any and all creatures that called the sea their home would bow their heads to whoever held the Trident in their grasp. For those who held the Trident and its incredible Power in their grasp, they could Rule Absolutely over all of the seven vast seas. Not even the strongest of the Elders, they whom were akin to the gods themselves, held such dominion and Lagiacrus, though a king of the Abyss, was no Elder.

He had no grounds to Challenge for the right to Rule Absolute.

"Very well. I shall take my leave of your kingdom this day but do not presume that I will forget. I owe your child a debt, King of the Seas and I will see it repaid. It may not be today. It may not be tomorrow. It may not be for several years but sooner or later, Ariel of Treasured Voice will call out my name and in that instant, I will return and see the debt repaid."

He turned away from the Bearer of the Trident and let his gaze fall once more upon the old king's youngest child.

"As was said by the Last of Mine to the First of Yours so I shall say to you, Ariel of Treasured Voice. Call when you have need of me. Ask what you will of me. By your order, I shall fight. By your command, I shall die. For my Power, my Service, are now your own. I am Lagiacrus of Abyssal Depths and I am yours."

Lightning arced across his scutes as he bowed his head low to the stunned mermaid, a lone spark connecting unseen between them though both felt it resonate like thunder within their hearts. With a flick of his massive tail, he twisted away and quickly departed the undersea kingdom of Atlantica. The vow had been made, the accord struck, and now, as he had told the king, he would wait. Be it near or distant, he knew there would come a day when she would call his name and he would be there to answer her no matter the distance.

For she had done what none had ever done before.

She had spoken to him as though he were a Person, not a Monster. She brought him back from the vestiges of the Primal Rage that had beset him and his kindred all those centuries ago at the end of their Age.

Something he doubted would ever happen again to another of his diverse kindred. Impossible is what he thought.

But that's just the thing isn't it?

While it may be improbable, nothing is ever impossible.

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><p><strong>Until the next turn of the page...<strong>

__Viscous Mists__


	2. Viscous Mists

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **As before with my "Familiars of Zero" and "From Across the Throne of Heroes," I am open to suggestions BUT I must make clear a few provisos, a couple of quid pro quo...

_Rule 1)_ While I am open to humanoid beasts they must not have been entirely human prior to becoming a monster, i.e. vampires, werewolves, etc. Essentially, anything that can at least somewhat be civil in their dealings with humans. We're looking for beasts here, creatures that may emulate a human level of sentience but not a true understanding of human concerns or mannerisms. Feel free to offer up anything from any media EXCEPT for those already included amongst the Disney family. After all, Stitch can't get a cameo in _every_ Disney movie as amusing as I'm sure it'd be.

_Rule 2)_ Please include a source material with the name of the beast, preferably with a scene/segment that best displays their strengths, weaknesses, and, if possible, their personality. You would not believe the number of characters out there that share the same name never mind finding an adequate highlight reel amongst entire _reams_ of source material. Such as... well, to use the last beast... The Abyssal Lagiacrus from the game "Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate."

_Rule 3)_ Do try and include the "Beauty" in your suggestions as well for while it's all well and good to supply the "beast" there still must be a beauty to tame them. Also, do feel free to offer your own thoughts/opinions as to why/how such a match-up should occur though please refrain from the ever common "just because" or "awesome." While the latter is certainly a good reason for most, the former is not. The "beauties" are not limited to the Disney Princesses either, any and all female characters under the Disney name (which does include Star Wars and Marvel by the way) are more than welcome, even those of a less than virtuous personality... As before with the beasts though, if the character is one that is so far from mainstream as to be almost forgotten, do include the source material as well.

**DISCLAIMER:** All copyrighted materials belong to their respected owners.

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><p><strong><span>Beasts of the Beauties<span>**

By Corvus no Genmu

"_Viscous Mists_"

She was an Intruder.

Such was what the residents called her.

She was a Curiosity.

Such was the least he thought of her.

Either way, she was one who did not call the Underground home as he did and instead dwelled in the Aboveground, where Chaotic Dreams held little sway over that which was the Ordered Reality. Yet in her wake there was no sensibility but more rampant chaos that trailed in the shadow of her footsteps.

A sea large as life and twice as salty where once was an empty and lifeless valley. Flowers high and low up in leaves over what did and did not constitute as a weed with said vegetation only egging the debates on with their own remarks. Butterflies and birds caterwauling their ire at she who was not what she claimed to be and was instead what they believed she is.

The rumors were enough to lure him out his den but the actual sight of her drew him like a snap-dragonfly to mince pie.

He had seen her ilk plenty of times. Saw enough of them that the very idea of them drove him to seek refuge deeper than deep. He had escaped them, the ones that he loathed, and took delight in frightening those who bore their image but were not truly them. For they who appeared but were not truly those of the Aboveground smelled of paper and ink but she…

She smelled of flesh and blood.

Just as he.

So he watched as she invaded deeper into his forest, one eye watching where she had been whilst the other gazed to where she would be. She was so young that he felt no true fear of her but he would not take the chance at injury to his pride. He would shiver once and only once for one who bore sharpened steel before taking blood for blood, but a child who bore only what lay inside her Heart?

No.

No, he would not fear nor would he strike.

He saw as the unnatural denizens of the wood crossed her path and tilted his hooded head curiously as she refused to be deterred from her path. He could hear her words and he understood them clearly though he could not fathom the feeling behind them. If she desired for home so much, why did she continue to intrude? This strange waif of an intruder made no sense in her words or in her actions.

Soon, the tiny and the meek became the large and the intimidating as those whom preyed rather than grazed took their turn to face the oddity in their midst. She surprised him again when she ignored them as readily, as easily, as she had the small and the meek. Even the great snatcher, the usurper who presumed itself of similar majesty to him, was readily rebuked with a turned head and a dainty sniff of dismissal.

_How very curious…_

For the first time since she entered his wood, he looked upon her with both eyes at once and was again amazed at her age. A hatchling, a child, and one of distinction for hers were the clothes of one whose soft and silken hands were unblemished by the hardships of life. He smelled her deeply once more and the hood upon the base of his curled tail relaxed and opened to its fullest. Hers was the scent of flesh and blood just as he but she also smelled of daisies and clean waters, warmed beverages and sugared honey.

She had never slain and those whom bore her into the world, they who raised her to be fearless even against the likes of him, were just as innocent.

_Still… old habits are hard to break._

**Don't do it.**

He appeared before her with his full reptilian majesty, chameleon-like head held high upon a serpent's neck and miasmic purple scales gleaming in the waning twilight that perpetuated his forest domain. She was startled by him but not by his appearance but rather the suddenness of it for he had been all but fully invisible to her eyes mere moments ago. As for him, well he was again amused at the sight of her tiny stature, her being all of a single mouthful with room for a second and a smaller third.

His fanged maw opened wide in a voracious yawn perpetuated with a lengthy bit of tongue lolling out and licking hungrily at his chops. His small yet remarkably strong wings flexed lightly upon his back, creating a small gust of hazy amethyst hue that parted to nothingness. His vicious red eyes looked everywhere but directly upon her until they snapped down to where she had been and where she would be for she had done something that he hadn't expected her to do.

She had turned her back on him and was walking away.

_She didn't…_

**She did.**

… Now he was insulted as he was curious.

"Where do you think you're going?" He spoke more to himself than to her and yet she answered regardless without turning back.

"I am going home. Straight home!"

She didn't even care to take note that it was he that had spoken rather than some errant bit of animalistic oddity mixed with some contraption of the Slayers.

_Curious… What does she carry in Heart to be so flippant in the face of an uncertain death?_

**Follow her. Discover the Truth of what lies within her Heart.**

"Indeed…" He murmured quietly to himself, sparing a moment to wonder just when he was able to speak and rationalize as he once had centuries ago but pushed the matters of the past aside for those of the present. He coughed once to clear his throat and called after her. "Do you even know the way?"

"If I came this way, then I should go back this way." She answered primly.

_Sound logic but…_

"The forest moves."

She stopped and froze to such perfect stillness that he wondered for a moment if she had been turned to stone by his words. His tongue lashed out and snatched an errant shutterbug, metal and sinew crunching in his fangs as he waited for her to come alive again.

"Wh-What…?"

His hooded head tilted at the abject dejection in her voice and he couldn't help the malicious grin. His pride as an Elder of his kindred had been trampled upon by a hatchling and he would see that she learned respect if nothing else.

"This is the Underground where up is down and left is right. Nothing remains the same though it never seems to change for better or worse. Even walking backwards you are not guaranteed to go to where you have been."

"Then… then I shall never get out?" Her head lowered as her arms came up to wrap herself in a tight embrace.

"Not on your own you won't." He hissed.

She surprised him yet again with actions he had not expected. She started to weep, not loudly as he had seen elders of her kin do nor wailing as those far younger than she are want to do, but he hated it just the same. It did not grate as those others did upon his ears but somewhere else deep within his chest. It was a strange, tightly feeling that he did not care for in the least and he wanted it gone and quickly.

"Stop it."

She sat upon a nearby rock and buried her face in her hands but the horrendously chest wrenching sound was not deafened by her motions and both of his hoods clenched tightly for its continuation. His eyes rolled madly as they sought a means of bringing this to an end whilst his fangs grinded against each other. Finally, he could take no more from his game and called his forfeit with a loud cry of his own.

"Enough!" He approached her with an angry snarl on his muzzle and furious stomp with every step. He stood towering above the hatchling, as was his proper place as Elder. "I said that you could not find your way on your own. I never said anything of my being averse to helping you find it."

She looked up, tears still trailing wetly down her face but her eyes bright with renewed hope as she gaze up at him.

"Re-Really?" She sniffled and dug into her pocket to pull out a small handkerchief. She dried her eyes and blew her nose once in a small but sharp retort. "You'll help me, sir?"

Though disgusted with the very idea to placating the likes of a hatchling, much less one of the same kin as the Slayers, he nodded. His eyes roved the landscape, refusing to look down upon the curiosity that was this invasive hatchling.

"I am not named "sir" Curious Little Thing. I am Elder Chameleos of Viscous Mists."

"Oh!" She hurried to her feet and performed a hasty curtsy, "My name is Alice."

He snorted, hazy purple smoke shooting out from his flared nostrils. He had no idea of the motions of Slayers and their kin but he felt it was right to assume that hers was meant to be respectful. "Come along then, Curious Alice."

He turned and started down the most open pathway in the forest, head held high and not once looking back to see if she was following. He heard her footsteps clearly enough for that and couldn't repress the vindictive smile when her head her stumble to match his larger pace. A smile that turned into a startled grimace that brought a brief but noticeable pause to his steps when he felt her hand grasp the tip of his curled tail.

"We'll have to find your way around the Queen's. Few places here aren't hers but I happen to possess a few of my own ways about here." He explained, one eye looking forward and the other rolling about the shadows of the wood. He could have sworn that he had heard something…

"Queen? But I've never met any queen…" Both eyes rolled to stare back down at the Curious Alice. Was it madness or imagination that made him hear actual disappointment in her voice?

"Be glad that you haven't." He told her, eyes still roaming for a source to that strange sense of familiarity. "The only thing shorter than her temper is her mate and that is a stretch."

"Oh but you must! You simply must!" cackled a familiarly unwelcome voice from the canopy above as a striped feline made his presence known by appearing on the scene one stripe at a time. "She'll be mad about you, simply mad!"

Chameleos eyes snapped to the Cat with such speed it was a marvel that the sound barrier hadn't broken. No, there was the crackling boom now, deep in the Elder's throat as he glared angrily upon the feline. A sound that choked itself deep in his lengthy throat upon Alice's happy exclamation.

"Oh Cheshire Cat, it's you!"

Chameleos turned eyes and head together towards His Curiosity. When precisely did he begin deeming her as such he did not know though it hadn't been before the Cat's arrival. "You know him?"

Alice looked surprised by the question and looked nervously back and forth between cat and monster. "Well, he was kind enough to show me the way before…"

Chameleos doubted that such things as "kind" and "the Cat" were used in the same sentence by anyone before. Well, save perhaps for those that included the words "is not" or any other such variation. Both of his eyes rolled to the Cat, disbelief evident in the reptilian orbs.

"Regardless of acquaintance, I thought we were in agreement, Cat. You do not trespass on My Ways and I don't interfere with your playing strings."

"Oh but this way is hardly yours, Jabberwock." The Cat eyes glimmering madly, grinned down at the pair below. "This is the wild wood after all."

Red eyes narrowed as thick, purple mists flowed between fanged jaws. "That title is an insult and you know it, Cat! I am no denizen of the Underground and I am to be treated as such just as she!"

"Oh yes, yes indeed she should, ought she?" The Cat's eyes gleamed upon Alice and the smile beneath the feline orbs stretched wider. "So! You want to see the Queen do you?"

Alice opened her mouth to reply but was firmly interrupted by Chamelos' stamping his forefoot hard upon the ground. "No she most certainly does not. She is in need of Her Way and not the Queen's Way."

"Oh but…" Alice started as both reptilian and feline eyes turned towards her. "I really haven't met a queen before."

"See, Jabberwock? Would hardly be fair for us to have met the Queen and her to not have delighted in the same company!" The Cat giggled merrily to himself as though he had said something outrageously hilarious.

Frankly, Chameleos thought him to be hilariously outrageous and in severe need of a good beheading but that was neither here nor there. He glared first at the Cat before allowing one eye to swirl and stare down at His Little Curiosity.

"Are you sure of this, Curious Alice? Where the Queen's way lies is not a place of reason as can be found here in this wild wood. If you think the Cat here is pleasant company then you will certainly not think the same of the Queen."

"Was I insulted or praised?" The Cat asked himself to whom he replied, "Neither and both I think."

As always, Chameleos ignored the Cat's inane prattling, "If are sure then I will leave you here and never will you find me again. Do you understand? You will have to find your own way from here on out."

* * *

><p>She had gone to see the Queen.<p>

_Foolish Curious Little Thing…_

**You should not have done that.**

She walked to her doom, dancing to the Cat's infernal tune the entire way.

_Should have listened to me, she ought to have… I am Elder so thus, I know more than she does. The World has fewer Mysteries left unseen by me._

**You could have stopped her.**

Yet here he was, meandering his way through towering hedges of dismal white, shameful black, and in some circumstances; mundane green. He stood upright upon his hind legs, wings flapping for proper balance before he crashed back down to all fours. Nothing.

_What actions might I have undertaken to persuade her to Reason in a land without such a thing?_

**You have words to Speak. Why didn't you?**

Where were the denizens of this portion of the Underground? Sure the creatures that bore not enough sense to speak and little wit to reason did not dare to tread here but there were those that seemed to have plenty of both. Where were they in this maddening maze? Not that Chameleos truly cared for them, those who stunk of paper and ink, bitter teas and infuriating spices.

He was looking for one such as he.

_What words could I have offered for her to heed me? Moreover, why should I care for the wellbeing of a Slayer?_

**She is no Slayer.**

She who was a child of the Slayers, the hunters of his kindred, but one whose hands were clean and whose scent reeked of such innocence that he thought impossible in a hatchling of the Slayers. He turned sharply, eyes whirling in his head with flaring nostrils. He could hear the Queen angry like he had never before. What could have possibly—

… _No._

**She is Princess.**

There—far and a ways behind him—His Curious Alice was there and she was running with the entirety of the Queen's Cards of Four Suits in hot pursuit. The red-faced Queen was shoving her way to the head of the Pack and she screamed with fury in her earth trembling voice. Yet Curious Little Alice was somehow ahead of them all

_Impossible…_

**Search your own Heart. You know it to be true. She is First of the Seven.**

"OFF WITH HER HEAD!"

_This can't be happening…_

**And you let her go to her death.**

And in reply, he gave a roar of his own. "NO!"

He turned sharply about, both eyes focusing together not upon His Curious Alice but on the advancing armies behind her. He stood upright, forelegs dangling and wings flapping as he took in a deep breath to roar—

"Chamelos!"

He choked. Acrid poisons burst out in thin streams from flared nostrils and clenched teeth as he fell back to all fours. His wings hung limply at his sides, his eyes listless, and his jaw slackening with disbelief.

_She…_

How long has it been since he had heard his name spoken by another?

_She is calling for me._

How long was it since he was glad of it?

**In the end, does it matter?**

She had called for him.

She had _Spoken_ to him.

**Shouldn't you answer her in kind?**

"Alice!"

He was aloft, small wings beating viscous mists of amethyst hues. His suckered toes reached out and grasped ahold of His Little Curiosity as the world around them started to tremble and shake. In the Aboveground, where Order Ruled Absolute, the poisons of Chameleos would decay vegetation and drive those that breathed it to the brink of madness but here in the Underground…

Such was no longer the case.

Here, the plants—nay, the very Underground itself, trembled with a sudden burst of growth as flowers became trees, grass exploded into bushes, and lifeless dirt beneath became an emerald sea of fresh grass. The maddened denizens, both furiously mad and madly furious, tripped and tumbled, and in one case rolled hollering head over tiny feet, but lived regardless. The poisonous mists of Chameleos were coursing through their lungs and with every exhaling gasp they became less than what they were and more of what they could be.

In the Aboveground, it would be a long time in the waiting for the effects to wear away if the victim was not immediately welcomed into Death's embrace.

In the Underground, it was a moment in time.

Thankfully, Time just happened to be on the side of an Elder Dragon and his Young Princess.

Chameleos hugged His Curious Alice tight to his chest with one arm whilst the other had suckered toes clutching tightly upon the trunk of the newly risen tree. Surrounding the pair was an ethereal field of clouds that were every conceivable color but for those that any cloud ought to naturally be. From ballistic blue to yelping yellow to generous greens, such was the bared backs of the Underground's clouds.

Such was the stuff of Dreams he supposed.

Eyes rolling every which way but down at the child hugging the base of his great neck, Chameleos murmured, "You may let go now. Where we are, none can follow."

"Are you sure?" She hugged his neck tighter, face pressed hard against his scales and he swallowed reflexively. He wasn't comfortable with contact of any sort and yet here he was embracing, and being embraced in kind, a hatchling child of his longtime enemies.

One eye rolled down towards her as he slowly held her out to the world that surrounded them. "See for yourself. We are at the teetering edge of the Above and the Under."

Her gasp did not surprise him but her smile of delight and wonder brought a familiar sense of foreboding. The suckered toes of his hand clung to the back of her dress as his curled tail tested the solidity of the cloudbank. Finding hardier ground than that of the earth below, he cautiously fell down to the rainbow hued clouds with gently flapping wings. He set down the Young Princess and stood back, taking in the sights for himself. It was strange, being so close to the World that he had left behind after so many ages having come and gone in the twinkling of an eye.

His whirling eyes roamed about in his head as he murmured to himself, "I suppose this is where we must part ways once more."

"What?" She turned to him, baby blue eyes looking high above into his own though they refused to linger long upon her. "But—How am I to find my way home without you?"

He shook his head. "You must find your own way back just as I must do the same. You must exit this land as you had entered it but do not fret. Here is where you are closest to finding Your Way, Princess."

"Princess?" She twiddled with her fingers, looking surprised and anxious at his words as she recalled the tales she had read of dragons and royal heiresses, "I'm not a princess…"

He shook his head. "You are not "a princess." You are First of the Seven but you are Princess nonetheless. You are young, incredibly so, but here, closer to the Real and on the precarious edge of the Dream, I see it now the Light shining from your Heart."

His eyes came back to her reluctantly and with sorrow clear in their reptilian orbs.

"What I had done is beyond forgiveness. I let you heed the words of the treacherous Cat, knowing that you would be put at risk of the Queen. Thus I owe you a boon, Princess and though it is but a token of the sum, here on the precipice I offer you the means of finding Your Way. Yet… there is more that I can, that I _must_ offer to you."

Chameleos knelt down on his forelegs, his long nasal horn falling gently upon Alice's shoulder.

"Ask what you shall have of my wits. Call when you have need of my strength. At your word, I will defend that which is most precious to you and protect you with everything that I am. At your command, I shall destroy all that you abhor and lay waste to those who stand against you. For my Heart lies in your hands, and my Power is now yours. My name is Chameleos of Viscous Mists and I am yours to infinity and beyond."

Alice shook her head, hands still anxiously twiddling her fingers. "I don't understand."

He arose to his full stature, wings flexing upon his back as the cloudbank started drifting higher beneath their feet. "When the Dreaming is over and the Reality starts to settle in, remember those words for this is the last you may hear from me for countless years to come or perhaps by tomorrow's morning. For what manner of beast am I to question the tangled skeins of Fate or the puzzling games of Destiny?"

His eyes rolled comically in his head, delighting a small, confused smile on the face of the young girl standing before him.

"Until then, this is goodbye." He sighed, his misted breath billowing outwards and combining with the rainbow hued clouds rising up into his Curious Alice's face.

"Goodbye?" She murmured.

He flapped his wings in a powerful gust and was unsurprised to find her gone with the passing of clouds.

He sighed once more and relaxed back onto his haunches. One eye roamed skyward whilst the other fell earthward. To stay in the Dream or to wake to the Reality, which was the better choice? Down here was eternity and up there was an assured death. Yet she was up there, awake and alive and he? He was down here, asleep and dead to the World.

**Is it that hard of a decision to make?**

_No. It isn't…_

And so he awoke from the Dream.

He merely had to let it all go…

* * *

><p><strong>Until the next turn of the page...<strong>

__North Wind  
><em>_


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